Chapter 1 – Meeting Zhang Yun Again
One sunny afternoon, Su Ruizhe stood outside a barbecue shop in an old school uniform, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He really missed this fragrance…
“Wu Shu! Give me ten strands of chicken, ten strands of mutton* and ten strands of beef!” Su Ruizhe swallowed his saliva hard and took out some crumpled change from his old school uniform pocket and handed it over.
The owner of the barbecue shop, Wu Qi, is a middle-aged man of nearly forty years old. He is of medium stature and 175 cm. He wears a pair of glasses and looks very graceful. elegant, refined, gentle, cultured.
“Is it Xiaozhe? Why do you eat so much today?” Wu Qi’s barbecue shop is located at the school gate of No. 1 Middle School. Su Ruizhe often works part-time during summer vacation. Therefore, Wu Qi is familiar with Su Ruizhe and knows that he has a good taste. referring to his food
But Su Ruizhe’s financial condition has always been in a tight spot. He saved seven or eight days to buy a bunch of meat and share it with his grandpa. He has had an addiction to his mouth* but never had he spent so much money.
*This just means he’s a foodie*
Su Ruizhe rubbed his hands and took out a few crumpled banknotes and put them in Wu Qi’s basket. A slightly tender and beautiful face showed a simple smile. “Uncle Wu, when I earn money today, I want to reward myself.”
“Earned money?” Wu Qi’s cooked the barbecue kebab with his hand, looked up at Su Ruizhe, and asked unconsciously, “How do you make money?”
Wu Qi knows Su Ruizhe’s family situation. His father died unexpectedly, and his mother ran away not wanting to suffer. The old grandfather raised him. He managed to get into No. 1 Middle School by hard work, but the tuition became a big problem. His grandfather who survived on a low living standard had to go out and collect garbage to earn money.
Not long ago, Su Ruizhe’s grandfather died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage when he was collecting garbage outside. Su Ruizhe lost his only relative and became an orphan completely. A 17-year-old child, even if he was sent to a welfare home, was too big to live on the 400 low-income pensions issued in the street* every month.
*Not sure what it means by in the streets*
Wu Qi also looked after the poor child and let him work in his shop during the holidays. For Su Ruizhe, the income of more than a dozen yuan a day is like a drop in the bucket. He can barely eat and clothe himself. As school begins, the tuition and living expenses become a big problem.
Now Su Ruizhe says he made money? Where can a young child make money? Wu Qi did not care.
Su Ruizhe smiled shyly and took out a small plastic bag from behind him. “This is my own vegetable. I took it out and sold it for money.”
“Huh? You planted it yourself? Show me.” Hearing that it was the money earned from selling vegetables, Wu Qi put down his suspended heart and quickly reached for the bag in Su Ruizhe’s hand.
“Oh, how many different kinds are there?” There are seven or eight different kinds of vegetables in the bag. Although the quantity is small, it is better than nothing.
Wu Qi took out a corn from the bag and sniffed it. He broke one and put it in his mouth. His eyes were bright. “It tastes good. You know it’s the freshest when you taste it! I want this bag. You take the money and sell it to me when you plant more later.”
Wu Qi’s barbecue shop sells not only roast meat but also roast vegetables. Su Ruizhe’s vegetables are better quality than the vegetables he bought from the vegetable market himself. So he immediately took a red hundred yuan bill from the money-box and stuffed it into Su Ruizhe’s hands.
Su Ruizhe wiped his lips and put the money away. Some baby fat cheeks showed two beautiful dimples. He laughed and thanked him. “Thank you, Uncle Wu. I’ll sell you some new vegetables in a few days.”
“Here, thirty strands of barbecue for you.” Wu Qi picked up a plastic box and filled Su Ruizhe’s barbecue.
“Thank you, Uncle Wu. Goodbye.” Su Ruizhe said goodbye to Wu Qi and turned away from the barbecue shop.
The aroma of roast meat lingered at the tip of his nose. Su Ruizhe could not wait to take out a string and bite it down.
Oh! The bliss!*
*Can also be ‘How Happy!’*
Su Ruizhe was about to burst into tears. He didn’t know how many years he hadn’t tasted this delicious taste…
Su Ruizhe wolfed down more than a dozen barbecues as he walked, then looked around carefully and turned into an alley.
When he came out of the alley again, the small box containing barbecued meat was gone and replaced by a large bag of fresh cherries.
“Sweet and big cherries, ten yuan a kilo, no sweets, no money.” Su Ruizhe found a roadside near the vegetable market and squatted down. He opened the bag with cherries in front of him. The bright fresh cherries immediately attracted the attention of many aunties.
“Boy, can I taste it?” One auntie asked aloud.
“Certainly.” Su Ruizhe handed over a cherry, two dimples looming on his cheeks, looking cute and lovely. “Aunt, this is my own harvest, absolutely fresh.”
The aunt nodded, and she could see that the cherry was fresh and there was some water on it, which was obviously cleaned, so she put the cherry directly into her mouth.
“Uh! How sweet! ” The sweetness as it enters the mouth and the rich juice let the cherry taste release fully in the mouth, and the aunt’s eyes lit up at once. “Young man, weigh three kilograms for auntie!”
“Good!” Su Ruizhe smiled and took out a plastic bag from his schoolbag. There was also a small electronic scale. He put half of the bags of cherries into the bag. “Aunt, three kilograms of cherries, I’ll also give you a potato.*”
*It could also be peanut so I’m pretty sure its a potato*
Then the aunt saw that there was a bag beside Su Ruizhe’s feet. There were some round potatoes in it. She was very happy to see the sale. She paid the money and took the things away.
Suddenly, a group of gangsters came along the street, all dressed up rascally, but a man walking at the end was very conspicuous.
The man is 1.9 meters tall and has long legs. His face can’t be seen clearly in a pair of black sunglasses, but his nose is tall and his face is very rigid. A slight stubble makes him look not to be trifled with.
He wore a tight black waistcoat on his upper body, outlined tight muscle lines, matched with his wheat-colored skin, and looked like a man with strong male hormones and a handsome face.
It’s a pity that he’s just a bum*…
*Could also mean tramp, hobo*
Su Ruizhe raised his small head and looked at the group of familiar punks. His eyes turned red unconsciously.
“Oh, elder brother is too fierce, you see you have done nothing, but people and children are about to be frightened by you and cry.” A yellow-haired man saw Su Ruizhe at first glance. The child’s skin was too white and grew too good. His big black eyes were as if saying something. At the moment, his eyes were red and his shoulders were shrunk as if frightened. He was like a little quail, but he was more lovely.
“Oh?” Zhang Yun plucked down his sunglasses and revealed a pair of long, narrow and deep eyes, looking in the direction of Su Ruizhe.
Su Ruizhe only felt that his feelings were about to jump out of his chest. He pinched his palm to death and did not open his mouth to shout out a big brother Yun.
As a result, the eye sockets became redder…
“Ah, what’s wrong with you kid…? We didn’t charge you for protection, we just talked to you! Why are you afraid of that?” Then the yellow-haired* guy went to Su Ruizhe and squatted down in front of him. He could not understand why he was afraid of such a good condition.
*Huang Mao means yellow hair so not sure if that’s his characteristic or his name*
Su Ruizhe also felt that he was too disgraceful. He quickly drew back his tears, wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeves, opened his big wet eyes, and tried to squeeze out a smile. He also brought a little baby’s fat cheeks*, which made him look like he wanted to be pinched. Two small dimples appeared on his cheeks, making him even more cute and lovely.
*It literally says little baby’s fat cheeks XD*
“Tut.” Zhang Yun kicked yellow-haired guy’s buttocks, kicked people away from Su Ruizhe’s face, and crouched down in front of Su Ruizhe instead. “What do you sell?” – that sound is like the clicking sound from the mouth
“Cherry! Big sweet cherries…” Su Ruizhe rubbed his hands and asked timidly, “Do you want to taste it?”*
*This was just too funny to me XD*
Zhang Yun took a deep look at him, reached out and picked up a cherry and put it in his mouth. The sweet taste immediately filled his mouth. It was really the first time that he had tasted such a delicious cherry.*
*Nah, the MC’s cherry is way better!*
“How many cherries have you brought?”
“There are still more than a dozen kilos left…”
“Give me ten pounds*.” After that, he stood up and said to the yellow-haired guy, who had just been kicked aside by him, “Wan*, pay the bill!”
*Don’t know what it means by Wan but I think it’s the yellow-haired guy’s name*
*1 kilo is about 2 pounds*
“Oh!” The yellow-haired guy quickly took out a hundred-dollar bill from his pocket and threw it to him. He also said in a particularly aggressive way, “Keep the change!”
Su Ruizhe quickly bagged the cherries and gave the bags to the yellow-haired guy. He whispered back, “Just right… No change…”
The yellow-haired guy who heard him almost tripped over himself. His brothers all came up to run against him and a group of people left noisily.
Watching the shadow of Zhang Yun disappear in the street corner, the look in Su Ruizhe’s eyes fades gradually…
He… doesn’t know me yet…
It was a few aunts and aunties who had been looking around who finally rushed up when they saw the gangsters leaving. They quickly snapped up the remaining cherries from Su Ruizhe. Didn’t the old people on East Street feel good? Buy ten kilos at a bargain! If you’re slow, it’s gone!
The last few potatoes were also sent out. Su Ruizhe patted the dirt on his buttocks and went home happily.
Through a few narrow lanes, Su Ruizhe returned to his small one-story house with his grandfather, opened the old wooden door with the paint peeling, and looked at the familiar small house, Su Ruizhe’s eyes could not help but flush.
“Grandpa…” Su Ruizhe sobbed, tears slowly dripping down his cheeks. “If I could come back earlier… Just a little earlier…”
But thinking that in a month the world would become an apocalypse full of corpses, he thought it might not be bad for Grandpa to leave at this time.
I hope you guys liked the first chapter and I decided to just add the footnotes after each paragraph because I couldn’t add the ones that can let you click on them and show you the number at the bottom. Anyway, I really liked this story and it seems sweet as well as interesting so I picked it up!
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